I know I’ve been MIA lately but 1. Working three jobs, 7 days a week is EXHAUSTING and 2. I was in Seattle wedding dress shopping for my sister!

These trips always get me so conflicted because while I hate the traffic and gloomy weather of Seattle, I love the restaurants and shops and galleries and energy of the city. Revisiting old neighbourhoods and my old workplace brought back so many memories and it almost made me want to move back- until I got caught in traffic.

I didn’t take very many pics but I was so in the moment, which is actually a good thing. And just to make your reading easier, let me once again share the names of all my siblings in order of their birth- Bruce (his wife is Lauren), Leilani (her fiancée is Andrew), Laura (her fiancée is Nick), and Ben (the baby).

I landed early Thursday morning where I was picked up by brother Bruce and Lauren and headed to Capitol Hill for breakfast and a catch up session with my best friend from high school Diana. I used to live in Capitol Hill so I enjoyed walking through the familiar streets to get to the diner. After breakfast, we dropped my brother off at home to sleep and Lauren and I hit the Alderwood Mall. Another place full of memories she and I killed a couple hours buying a few small items (including matching sister scarves). That night, the family went out to dinner at Azteca and were joined by Laura’s childhood best friends Amrit & Nisha.

We woke up bright and early on Friday for dress shopping! We had three appointments that day and to kick it off Laura reserved us a table at Queen Mary’s Tea Room. Let me tell you, we have all been to the tea room several times before but the service we received was AWFUL.

When one of the people in the reservation flaked out, we were told there was a $10 fee anyway. We looked around the completely empty place (only one other table was occupied) and told the waitress we didn’t think that was valid when it was an empty house like that.

Leilani and I tried to order a pot of tea to share because we never finish the whole pot and were told people weren’t allowed to share and had to order their own which is so wasteful.

The waitress would visibly roll her eyes when she walked away and made us feel like we were high maintenance when we asked for a fork or cream for the tea.

We only had a group of 6 but were charged 18% gratuity for a large group. I worked as a waitress and most places only do that for groups of 8 or more, 6 hardly counts.

Overall, it was a terrible experience and if it was my first time there, I would never go back. But I’ve been there before and enjoyed it, so I’ll give it another chance. Okay, there was my rant. Moving on.

Love the tea, hate the service

Our first bridal stop was to BHLDN which is a new place that is actually in the downtown Anthropologie. We also hit I Do Bridal in Wallingford and Dress Theory in Greenlake. During the day we hit Thai 65 in the University District for lunch which had a THAI BUFFET! I ate three plates of pad thai and yellow curry. It was amazing! For dinner, I hit Central Market in Mill Creek for their salad bar and loaded it with greens.

Trying on bridesmaid dresses

On Day 2 we hit La Belle Ellaine‘s in Seattle Centre which was my favourite place by far! It had a huge variety of dresses and a runway for the bride to walk on. My mom was the first to hop on the runway and ask for a picture so of course we followed suit.

Working the runway

Laura found a dress similar to the one she loved at I Do and we were all faced with a dilemma to which one was better. We made a last minute appointment at I Do and had to race over as they closed at 4 and it was 3:30. In the end, Laura chose the gown from I Do and is soooo excited about it. She kept looking at the pictures of it over and over.

I won’t share her actual dress, but here is one of the contenders

For dinner we headed to Seattle oldest restaurant, Merchant Café in Pioneer Square. My mom wanted to go because it was featured on her favourite show “Dead Files.” a show about a medium who goes to haunted places and sees and feels ghosts. In my opinion it’s BS, but my mom was so excited. We went down the “haunted” stairs where the ghost pushes people and we even saw the owner walk by who was on the show. It’s really just a pub now with pub food, but we had a good time.

Before dinner we wandered through Pioneer Square a little and I was trying to drag my family into one of the many galleries that were open. But Pioneer Square is a sketchier neighborhood and there were a lot of homeless people around and my mom and sisters were nervous and just wanted to go inside. I worked in Pioneer Square for two years so it didn’t bother me, it would have been nice to relive my city days.

My flight Sunday wasn’t until the evening so we spent the afternoon watching the Seahawks games and snacking. It felt just like old times, I loved it.

And just like that my trip was over! I told Ryan I would like to go up to Calgary a little more to experience that city and its culture. I love country living but I would like a little more city visiting.

Hello and welcome to Better LIVIN! I’m Rachel, a 34 year old mama and substitute teacher in Southern Alberta, Canada. This blog is about hiking and other outdoor adventures, fitness, healthy living, and life in general. See my About page for more info!

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